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Donate to keep local radio station open

Volunteers at Salford’s multiple award-winning community radio station are today launching a crowd-funding campaign to keep the station open.

They have just 8 weeks to raise the £10,000 the station needs in order to meet Ofcom’s strict rules on renewing the broadcast licence; and they’re appealing to the people of Salford and the wider community to keep them on air.

Salford City Radio station is run by 83 volunteers aged between 18 and 85. Each person also broadcasts on the station as well as helping in the day to day running. They need to raise money to secure its next licence, maintain equipment, and keep providing a service to the local community.

Chris Bell studio manager says: “This station gives a voice to those that wouldn’t have one otherwise. It gives volunteers young and old a brilliant chance to learn new skills and grow their confidence. It would be a tragedy if it went to the wall. But honestly, I know the people of Salford are going to get behind us’. Chris cut his teeth in radio as a volunteer broadcaster and the experience has helped him get work at the BBC, In 5Live Radio and also BBC Sport.

The station has hosted hundreds of volunteers since it was founded by Salford City Council in 2007. Since then it has broadcast continuously from its base at Swinton Civic Centre.

Salford Mayor Paul Dennett is backing the campaign too and the city council continues to support the station by keeping the building and it’s amenities up and running.

In the nine years since Salford City Radio opened, the station has won numerous awards, most recently in 2016, when it was awarded the “Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service” – the highest honour for a voluntary organisation, and the equivalent of an MBE. The station citation was for ‘Providing an inclusive, educational and entertaining service for local people of all backgrounds and cultures.’

Sufiya Rehman became a part time studio manager after working as a volunteer for three years. Sufiya says: “Before I started at the station I just felt like a woman, a minority, like a nobody at that time. But coming here I was able to express myself through radio and now through my programme I am the person for people who don’t have that platform’. Sufiya says the station helps individuals, charities and faith organisations reach Salford people.

The target is to raise enough money to help the station to apply to renew the licence by April 1; and to reach it’s 10th birthday in September 2017 and then to continue to fund raise to stay on air for the next five years.

Initial fund-raising events range from crowd-funding to supermarket bag packing, and music nights in February and March at two iconic Salford music venues.

Cllr Jim King Chair of Salford City Radio said: ‘We are proud of our many awards and achievements over many years. Our work has been commended locally, regionally and nationally.

“The quality of our work is therefore not in doubt. In launching this funding campaign we intend that the ‘Voice of Salford’ continues on air serving the many and diverse communities of your city.

“Now only with YOUR help can we continue broadcasting. Please support your home station.”